Jordan Peele is unleashing another worthwhile piece of distinct filmmaking.
Only a few years ago known best for the comedy-sketch series “Key & Peele,” he reshaped our perception of him as an artist with the thought-provoking, genre-shaking 2017 horror film “Get Out” and another, “Us,” in 2019.
Now comes “Nope,” which — at least at first blush — is both his most impressive work from a technical standpoint and his least ambitious in terms of social commentary and thematic examination.
An entertaining blend of horror, science-fiction and even Western, “Nope” is meant to be both a slice of summer-movie spectacle and an examination “about the human addition to spectacle,” as its writer-director says in the film’s production notes.
To achieve this aim, Peele has reunited with the incredibly talented star of “Get Out,” Daniel Kaluuya — an Academy Award winner for last year’s “Judas and the Black Messiah” — and paired him with the engaging Keke Palmer (“Hustlers,” “Alice”). They play siblings OJ and Emerald Haywood, who have inherited a horse ranch from their father, Otis Haywood Sr. (Keith David, “21 Bridges”), whose mysterious death we witness in the film’s opening minutes.
The ranch raises and trains horses for film and TV production, and because Otis was an industry legend, OJ doesn’t want to sell the ranch despite financial difficulties. However, he has been selling horses to neighboring Jupiter’s Claim, a family-friendly Old West theme park and petting zoo run by former child actor Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun, “Minari”).
This remote patch of California land sits below something mysterious in the sky, something that may be hiding in a cloud. If it is, as mounting evidence suggests, a UFO, the siblings want to capture it on camera — even if increasingly frequent nighttime power outages may make achieving that goal difficult.
OJ and Emerald enlist the help of Fry’s Electronics store employee Angel Torres (Brandon Perea, “The OA”) to install a network of cameras at the ranch. Because Angel is an avid fan of shows such as “Ancient Aliens,” they get an extra level of service in which they initially aren’t interested but on which they later come to depend.
Meanwhile, Ricky — whose disturbing backstory we are treated to in a glimpse of the highly impactful variety — wants something different from whatever may be hiding in the sky.
At the controls, Peele — with the help of cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema (“Dunkirk,” “Let the Right One In”) — shows us little beyond the ranch and murky views of the cloudy night sky for much of “Nope.” Instead, he leans heavily on sound designer Johnnie Burn (“The Killing of a Sacred Deer”) to provide much of the film’s intended terror. Eventually, though, visual effects supervisor Guillaume Rocheron (“1917”) gets his time to shine, unveiling several good looks at the movie’s big bad.
Although Angel lays out for OJ and Emerald — and, by extension, us — what the extraterrestrial possibilities are, our lips are sealed.
The siblings portrayed by Kaluuya and Palmer are very different, with Emerald having a lot more to say a lot more often than OJ, who’s by far the more serious and purpose-driven of the two. Still, their love for each other comes through, and they share a few humorous moments — including when they recruit a veteran cinematographer, Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott, “Westworld”), to help them capture the money shot — the "Oprah" shot — of whatever is terrorizing them.
Still, OJ as a character feels a bit underdeveloped, as, unfortunately, does Ricky, even if we, like he, won’t soon forget his aforementioned childhood experience.
A second viewing of “Nope” could suggest more to these characters, of course. It also could reveal more of the film’s subtext.
Yes, Peele has put two Black characters — who are descendants of the person seen in the first-ever instance of a moving picture — front and center in the type of story that traditionally may have had white heroes. There’s almost surely more to it than that, though, down to the choices of OJ and Emerald for their names.
And Peele certainly is saying something about man’s relationship to animals, with the film’s creatures given their own titled chapters. Animals’ reactions to loud noises created by humans is one key element of this story.
Nonetheless, it all feels just a little lacking in meaty substance when comparing it to Peele’s earlier works.
Perhaps most importantly, though, the promised spectacle is delivered. And because it’s Peele, it doesn’t come in quite the same flavor of that provided by your “Top Gun: Maverick” or “Jurassic World Dominion,” which is more than fine.
The production notes for “Nope” refer to it as a “dark pop nightmare,” and we can’t top that descriptor. That’s perfect, even if the movie isn’t.
Skip a trip to the theater for Peele’s latest? Nope.
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‘NOPE’
3 stars (out of 4)
MPAA rating: R (for language throughout and some violence/bloody images)
Running time: 2:10
How to watch: In theaters Friday
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